We recently came across the work of new-on-the-scene furniture designer, New York based James Strumpf, working under the studio name of ‘Avoirdupois’ who is about to release his debut collection ‘Tripartite’. What happens when an engineer turns his hand to design?

Paris based photographer, Valentin Fougeray’s refined vision allows him to create surrealistic still life photographs with a rough touch of reality and a contemporary aesthetic. His ability to make the ordinary, such as blacktop and tin foil seem, mystic, exotic and sometimes disorientating - is what has us coming back for more.

Atelier François Pouenat, a family run atelier, was established 130 years ago in Varennes, France and works in everything from aligning with independent designers to develop objects restoring historic buildings. We were excited to have the chance to sit down and explore how an Atelier like AFP work with young designers on developing projects and manufacturing by taking questions directly from our design community.

Inari is a chain smoking psychic from Helsinki who has a love for interesting textures and materials. She has somewhat of a cult following not only limited to Finland, but all over Scandinavia.. One would think she must have excellent psychic abilities, for those to travel far and wide to see her but it could be said that her eccentric personality and taste could be more part of her allure than anything.

Each design week and global design fair holds different expectations and characteristics. Milan Design Week, the mother of all global design weeks, makes us burn with anticipation not only to discover all of the new designers, collections and pieces but to be WOWed by the conceptual immersive environments and installations.

We saw thousands of design pieces during Milan Design Week - there were, however, a number of pieces and collections which we could not get out of our mind. This year we discovered an upcoming trend of iridescent finishes, functional sculptures, and form following process. We put a few of those favourite design gems here below !

After digesting all of the incredible installations, pieces, designers, and concepts we discovered during that epic week in April, we came to the conclusion that there were too many gems for one article. Follow along in a four-part series of the best of Milan Design Week 2018 below !

We sat down with the founders to come up with a must-see list of exhibits here in Milan for the Design Week. Have a look at our picks below and check in on The Design Release's mobile website this week to see where all events are taking place and when.

This weekend is one of my personal favourites, Architectural Digest 'MADE' Show. Here at say hi to_, we love to discover the next generation of innovative, up and coming designers and creatives first and that is exactly what you will find at MADE. Known for launching the careers of more than a few of our favourite American furniture designers, the AD 'MADE' show is a must visit if you are in New York and you are interested in finding the 'next big thing', before anyone else does.

We have been invited to visit, participate in and work with the District Design Dialogue – Holland Village project at Singapore Design Week 2018 this year in March. The initiative, which is helmed by innovative local design agency Hjgher, is a series of imagined shop installations forged to showcase the local creative talent and build the local design community through workshops, events, and talks.

Collectible Design, a brand new fair hosted in Brussels, Belgium is dedicated to collectible design furniture pieces and is exactly what (we) and Europe needed. Finally, we will have a place to go and explore a curated selection of the most compelling contemporary designers and galleries in the heart of Europe.

So many countries, so many design weeks and so little time. Thankfully for you, we shortlisted a few very promising events, festivals and design fairs coming up next month in the design world from Singapore to Iceland.

Ever wonder what industrial materials, south korean objet design, neon signs and pink bubble wrap juxtaposed against pink gravel looked like inside of a shop, in the center of Paris looked like? Have a look.